Cornwall is owed more than £20 million in unpaid council tax, shocking new figures show.

The figure includes £8.7 million of arrears relating to 2017/18 that were still outstanding at the end of the financial year, £182,000 of which has already been written off.

The rest of the huge sum is debt which has been racked up over previous years - and never recovered for the taxpayer.

The Government data , published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, does show that most of the council tax the authority was entitled to in 2017/2018 was secured - a total of 97.5 per cent.

But the outstanding amount would be enough to pay for the whole Stadium for Cornwall to be built, for every councillor in Cornwall to be paid for the next 10 years or for the whole revamp of the Hall for Cornwall.

Cornwall is owed more than £20 million in unpaid council tax

That's slightly above the national average of 97.1 per cent for all councils.

Despite that, Cornwall Council had total council tax arrears of £20.4 million as of March 31, which is more than any other authority locally.

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This year's nationwide increase in tax bills came against a backdrop in which 80 per cent of councils feared for their financial stability.

Council tax can be hiked by up to 3 per cent this year, in line with inflation, before a referendum is triggered, while authorities can also levy an additional “precept” to raise money for spending on social care.

The greatest immediate pressure on budgets has come in children’s services (nearly 32 per cent of councils), followed by adult social care (nearly 28 per cent), and housing and homelessness (19 per cent).